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Confidentiality & Informed Consent

Confidentiality & Informed Consent

The NLS program has established set procedures for ensuring respondent confidentiality and obtaining informed consent. These procedures comply with Federal law and the policies and guidelines of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

OMB Procedures

Respondents' Advance Letter

Institutional Review Boards

Federal Laws

Survey Procedures

Data Handling

OMB Procedures

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviews the procedures and questionnaires for each NLSY round.

OMB is responsible for setting overall statistical policy among Federal agencies. For example, OMB has established standards on collecting information about race and ethnicity, industry, occupation, and geographic location. OMB also has established standards on the manner and timing of data releases for such principal economic indicators as the Gross Domestic Product, the national unemployment rate, and the Consumer Price Index. In addition, OMB sets standards on whether and how much respondents to Federal surveys can be paid for their participation, an issue of particular concern in the NLS program.

Another of OMB's responsibilities is to review the procedures and questionnaires that Federal agencies use in collecting information from 10 or more respondents. Federal data collections reviewed by OMB include administrative data, such as the tax forms that the Internal Revenue Service requires individuals and corporations to complete. OMB also reviews all censuses and surveys that Federal agencies conduct, either directly or through contracts.

OMB examines a variety of issues during these reviews, such as:

The amount of time (and money, if any) that the agency collecting the information estimates respondents will spend to provide the requested information

The agency's efforts to reduce the burden to respondents of providing the information

The purpose and necessity of the data collection, including whether it duplicates the objectives of other Federal data collections

The ways in which the agency obtains informed consent from potential respondents to participate in the data collection

The policies and procedures that the agency has established to ensure respondent confidentiality

The statistical methods used to select representative samples, maximize response rates, and account for nonresponse

The payment of money or the giving of gifts to respondents

The questionnaire itself, including the quality of its design and whether it includes questions that respondents may regard as sensitive

These OMB reviews are very thorough. From the time an agency prepares an OMB information collection request until the time OMB approves the data collection, the process typically takes 7 months or more and includes multiple layers of review within each agency and at OMB. These reviews are helpful in improving survey quality and ensuring that agencies treat respondents properly, both in terms of providing them with information about the data collection and its uses and in protecting respondent confidentiality.

The review process also provides the general public with two opportunities to submit written comments about the proposed data collection. The agency conducting the data collection publishes a notice in the Federal Register describing the data collection and inviting the public to request copies of the information collection request, questionnaires, and other materials that the agency eventually will submit to OMB. The public is invited to submit written comments to the agency sponsoring the data collection within 60 days from the time the Federal Register notice is published. In the history of the National Longitudinal Surveys program, the public very rarely has submitted comments to BLS, but when comments are received, they are summarized in the information collection request that ultimately is submitted to OMB.

After the request has been submitted to OMB, the agency sponsoring the data collection then publishes a second notice in the Federal Register and invites the public to submit comments directly to OMB within 30 days. Again, in the history of the National Longitudinal Surveys program, the public very rarely, if ever, has submitted comments to OMB.

Once OMB has received the information collection request, they have 60 days to review the package, ask follow-up questions, suggest changes (or occasionally insist upon changes) to the survey questionnaire or procedures, and ultimately grant approval.

Respondents' Advance Letter

After OMB grants approval, the sponsoring agency can begin contacting potential respondents and collecting information from them. The process of contacting potential NLS respondents begins with sending them an advance letter (See Figure 1 and Figure 2) several weeks before interviews are scheduled to begin.

The advance letter serves the following purposes:

informs respondents that an interviewer will be contacting them soon

thanks respondents for their previous participation and to encourage them to participate in the upcoming round

reminds respondents that their participation is voluntary

tell them how much time the interview is expected to take

explains how the data will be used

explains how respondents' confidentiality will be protected by BLS and the organizations that conduct the surveys for BLS

provides a required privacy and disclosure statement on the reverse side of the letter (see Figure 2)

Figure 1. Sample NLSY97 Advance Letter

Most people wouldn't make a major decision without doing some research first. Whether you are finding a new job, buying a new car or house, you want to be as informed as possible in order to make the best possible decision.

Your continued participation in the NLSY97 provides decision makers with the necessary research to make the best possible choices.

So let your perspective be heard and set up your appointment today!

The average interview takes about 65 minutes

As a thank you, you will receive a monetary gift.

The information you provide is always protected under Federal law.

Learn more about the project by interacting with the data and research!

Or just use your phone to scan the code on the right to contact us online!

Complete and send the card below in the postage-paid envelope

Figure 2. Privacy and Disclosure Statement (found on the reverse side of the Advance Letter)

WHY IS THIS STUDY IMPORTANT? Thanks to your help, policymakers and researchers will have a better understanding of the work experiences, family characteristics, health, financial status, and other important information about the lives of people in your generation. This is a voluntary study, and there are no penalties for not answering questions. However, missing responses make it more difficult to understand the issues that concern people in your community and across the country. Your answers represent the experiences of hundreds of other people your age. We hope we can count on your participation again this year.

WHO AUTHORIZES THIS STUDY? The sponsor of the study is the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. The study is authorized under Title 29, Section 2, of the United States Code. The Center for Human Resource Research at The Ohio State University and NORC at the University of Chicago conduct this study under a contract with the Department of Labor. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the questionnaire and has assigned 1220-0157 as the study's control number. This control number expires on 5/31/2017. Without OMB approval and this number, we would not be able to conduct this study.

WHO SEES MY ANSWERS? We want to reassure you that your confidentiality is protected by law. In accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002, the Privacy Act, and other applicable Federal laws, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, its employees and agents, will, to the full extent permitted by law, use the information you provide for statistical purposes only, will hold your responses in confidence, and will not disclose them in identifiable form without your informed consent. All the employees who work on the survey at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and its contractors must sign a document agreeing to protect the confidentiality of your data. In fact, only a few people have access to information about your identity because they need that information to carry out their job duties.

Some of your answers will be made available to researchers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government agencies, universities, and private research organizations through publicly available data files. These publicly available files contain no personal identifiers, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and places of work, and exclude any information about the States, counties, metropolitan areas, and other, more detailed geographic locations in which survey participants live, making it much more difficult to figure out the identities of participants. Some researchers are granted special access to data files that include geographic information, but only after those researchers go through a thorough application process at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those authorized researchers must sign a written agreement making them official agents of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and requiring them to protect the confidentiality of survey participants. Those researchers are never provided with the personal identities of participants. The National Archives and Records Administration and the General Services Administration may receive copies of survey data and materials because those agencies are responsible for storing the Nation's historical documents.

HOW MUCH TIME WILL THE INTERVIEW TAKE? Based on preliminary tests, we expect the average interview to take about 65 minutes. Your interview may be somewhat shorter or longer depending on your circumstances. If you have any comments regarding this study or recommendations for reducing its length, send them to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Longitudinal Surveys, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, DC 20212.

WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION? To learn more about the survey, visit www.bls.gov/nls. To search for articles, reports, and other research based on the National Longitudinal Surveys, visit www.nlsbibliography.org.